Month: April 2011

That noon start tomorrow may not be ideal for every fan, but for those of us dinosaurs writing for print, it’s perfect.

Two, three overtimes? Still no deadline worries.

As for the players, Joe Pavelski said last night that he and his teammates would actually welcome more afternoon games in the mix. And here’s what Todd McLellan had to say on the topic this afternoon:

“Both teams have issues and things to deal with. Our body clocks and our hockey clocks are set to skate at this time — this is when we practice every day. We start thinking hockey and breathing hockey.

“It’s a matter of what you do tonight, how you manage your morning and how you prepare. That’s an individual choice that each of our players have to make so they can come in and play for their teammates.

Now, moving forward.

*****If Game 1 is any indication, the pattern of penalties from their 2010 playoff series may be repeating itself. Last year, San Jose was awarded 31 power plays to 23 for the Red Wings.

No major developments here on the San Jose side of the series at Sharks Ice today, but there was a little drama over at the Red Wings skate at HP Pavilion when Pavel Datsyuk didn’t practice with his teammates.

Drama ended a little later when Mike Babcock told reporters it was an optional skate and Datsyuk exercised his option — and that he and Henrik Zetterberg would be on the same line in Game 2 when the puck drops at 12:20 p.m. Sunday for Game 2.

Here at Sharks Ice, the best I’ve got is that Benn Ferriero is still changing his gear in the secondary dressing room with the rest of the Worcester guys. Stall in the big locker room after delivering the game-winner in overtime Friday night on his 24th birthday? Not yet.

I seemed more concerned about that than Ferriero did. More important, he kept his spot on the fourth line during drills today.

“Yep, it’s nice to keep it going,” Ferriero said before putting last night in a broader context. “It’s one game. I’ve got to hopefully play well the next game to stay in the lineup and contribute as much as I can.”

And from the number crunching, factoid-delivering pros at the Elias Sports Bureau, this bit of data:

Benn Ferriero was the first player in NHL history to score a playoff OT goal on his birthday.

Want more?

The last NHL player to score his first playoff goal in OT of his first playoff game was another Shark — Niko Dimitrakos in the opening game of a first-round series against the St. Louis Blues.

One more oddity: It was Mike Babcock’s birthday, too. He’s 48, exactly twice as old as the player who ruined the Detroit coach’s evening.

Before Ferriero’s heroics, the focal point of things on the San Jose side was obviously Joe Pavelski, from the three penalties he drew to the roughing encounter with Jimmy Howard to the power-play goal that enabled Ferriero to be the overtime hero.

One last trip through the notebook for insights into what may lie ahead and a little of the color from the first day of what has the promise of being a bumpy ride of a San Jose-Detroit series to remember.

****There was an off-handed mention in an earlier post that this morning’s skate was optional for the Sharks, but I neglected to note who didn’t take part: Patrick Marleau, Dany Heatley, Douglas Murray and Niclas Wallin.

Now because those four routinely opt out of an optional skate, I didn’t think anything of it. But I mention it here now to basically try and cover my posterior in case any of the four aren’t in the lineup tonight.

Last year, if you recall, Marleau missed Game 1 with a bad case of the flu. He did, however, skate that morning. Anyway, just sayin’. And, I know, stirrin’.

****Todd McLellan was asked if he was concerned about Antti Niemi’s performance against Los Angeles or did the coach think the team and the goalie could put aside events from that last series.

Next, something from both coaches and we’ll start with Mike Babcock because he did clarify the one question mark in his starting lineup.

Drew Miller is in, Kris Draper is out. That gives Detroit a fourth line of Miller, Darren Helm and Patrick Eaves.

Babcock also confirmed that he’d start the game with a top line that could — if we’re being honest here — create real problems for the Sharks: Pavel Datsyuk, Henrik Zetterberg and Tomas Holmstrom.

A year ago at this time, Babcock kept Datsyuk and Zetterberg on different lines and he offered an explanation today why they’ll be starting on the same one.

“We’re a deeper team down the middle than we were this time last year because of the growth of Helm and (Justin) Abdelkader and so we don’t have to play them apart,” Babcock said. “Last year at this time we felt we had to.”

How long he’ll keep Datsyuk and Zetterberg together, of course, depends on how things are going.

Do not be surprised to see Ben Eager back at left wing on the fourth line tonight.

“Maybe” was Todd McLellan’s answer to the question of lineup tinkering and, no, he wasn’t going to share his thoughts on what he had in mind.

But Eager was off the ice after this morning’s optional skate with the lineup regulars, usually the sign of someone who will be in action that same night. And when I talked with Eager, he sounded like someone who is about to get another chance.

While we’re speculating, there could be another change as well. Benn Ferriero, too, came off the ice before both Jamal Mayers and Jamie McGinn.

Again, there’s subterfuge all the time. But it looks as if the Sharks lineup starting the Detroit series won’t be the same one that finished up against Los Angeles.

****I did ask McGinn if the coaches had talked to him about that five-minute major that could have been disastrous late in Game 6 against Los Angeles.

No, he said, other than to mention they didn’t think his hit warranted the call that followed.

****More later. Going back to the idea of knocking out short posts on game day rather than one longer one.

Nothing that really qualifies as news today, so let’s get straight to the build-up leading to Friday night’s Game 1 against the Detroit Red Wings.

The two teams like to match strength-against-strength, pitting their top lines against one another rather than, say, throwing out a checking line against Patrick Marleau, Joe Thornton and Devin Setoguchi, or Johan Franzen, Pavel Datsyuk and Tomas Holmstrom.

That, Marleau said, forces players to focus on both defense and offense equally.

“You have to be strong on both sides of the puck. That’s the main thing when you;’re playing against Zetterberg or Datsyuk and all their wingers,” he said. “You make a mistake or take a shift off or don’t have it and it usually ends up in the back of your net.”

Defenseman Douglas Murray noted that he has to be ready to go against Detroit’s more physical players as well as the top skill guys like Datsyuk and Zetterberg.

Back to Working the Corners for a quick post before things get hectic again today.

This morning’s print edition story on the Detroit-San Jose series (see link at right) is of the kitchen-sink variety, as in you throw everything into it that you can to set things up, hitting as many topics as possible in the allotted space.

Which is the right way to go, even if it short-changes some of those topics you touch upon — you can always get back to them later, or, as in this case, turn to the blog.

To me the Todd McLellan (and Jay Woodcroft) connection to Mike Babcock and Detroit is still noteworthy three years later, so we talked about it. A snippet made the story. Here’s his more extended, thoughtful response about facing the team the two of them were with when Detroit last won the Stanley Cup in 2008:
So is there still something special about facing Detroit?

“If you asked anybody that’s won a championship with a group, there’s always an attachment to that group and there will always be that spot – that moment, that time that you battled with that group.

“But we’re trying to create that moment here now so we’ve put all that aside. It’s about living for today. We’re part of the Shark family and that’s our focus.”